Establishing a High Performing Experience Design Team

As part of an enterprise-wide restructuring initiative, the Experience Design capability at the bank was realigned to support key business priorities and individual pods of design teams were strategically resourced into focused spaces. Within this restructuring of teams, I was brought in to establish and lead a newly formed Experience Design team responsible for delivering high-quality digital experiences that empower branch employees to provide personalized service to customers.

My newly formed manager role was brought in to lead efforts of an experience design team. This team’s mission is to deliver high-quality, efficiently designed digital experiences for the enterprise banking platform that equips branch employees to provide a personalized servicing experience for the bank’s customers.

As an experience design team manager, how do I create healthy conditions necessary for a high performing team to execute and deliver quality design solutions in an agile environment?

APPROACH + EXECUTION

My initial focus was to quickly create conditions for a high-performing design team within an agile enterprise environment.

To accelerate team alignment, a series of structured working sessions were designed that set the tone for:

1. Establishing a shared understanding of the business space and strategic priorities.
2. Building cohesion and operational clarity among team members.

Over several months, workshops were conducted within the team that spanned five key areas:

1. Program & Partnership Alignment – Connecting team goals to enterprise strategy, understanding business roadmaps, and mapping key stakeholders.
2. Team Purpose & Health – Defining team mission, vision, OKRs, and performance metrics.
3. Team Structure – Clarifying roles, expectations, and competency benchmarks.
4. Team Collaboration – Establishing team values and conflict resolution frameworks.
5. Partner Collaboration – Defining engagement models, scope alignment, prioritization frameworks, and partnership rituals.

OUTCOME

These efforts resulted in both immediate and long-term benefits, including:

• Formalized Team Charter – A shared vision, mission, values, and operational principles.
• Streamlined Team Routines – Established and aligned ceremonies to optimize workflow.
• Scalable Delivery Framework – An MVP sizing and capacity model for prioritization.
• Defined Roles & Responsibilities – Clarity on individual contributions and growth paths.
• Tool Hygiene & Governance – Standardized use of design tools (Figma, Miro).
• Performance & Success Metrics – Ongoing tracking of impact and team effectiveness.

IMPACT + INFLUENCE

The success of this initiative extended beyond my team:

• Scaled Across the Organization – The workshop structures and methodologies were socialized across and subsequently adopted by peer teams, driving consistency and operational maturity across the capability.
• Strengthened Business Partnerships – The implementation of performance metrics and structured engagement models deepened business partner buy-in and elevated the perceived value of design.
• Enabled Leadership Continuity – The foundational structures put in place ensured a smooth leadership transition when I moved into a new role, allowing my successor to step in with minimal disruption.

This structured approach to team formation and alignment not only accelerated team performance but also influenced broader design operations within the bank. By proactively addressing governance, collaboration, and measurement, this initiative demonstrated how Experience Design can be strategically positioned to inform measurable business impact.